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The battleship where the young tourists roam became flooded over the weekend. Staff arrived Saturday and immediately noticed something was wrong with the ship that fought in World Wars I and II and has served since 1948 as a memorial and museum to those who sacrificed their lives.

The vessel was sitting awkwardly in its slip. She was lower in the water and listing to the left.

"We got down to the lower portions of the ship and discovered that we had taken on more water than usual in areas that we normally don't," ship manager Andy Smith said. "They started pumping throughout the day Saturday, and it got progressively worse."

The situation was so dire by Sunday that the ship's caretaker, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, had to find more pumps to help remove the water. Smith said the news got worse on Monday.

Bad news, indeed. I can't imagine that the hull had rotted through, although sometimes the various thru-hull fittings can cause a problem.

I would suspect this is probably the most likely culprit. Sea chest valves (valves in the lower levels that sit between the hull and the water), or the seals on the blanking flanges that would have been put in place once those valves were removed, would be more likely to fail than the hull rotting through.

I would suspect this is probably the most likely culprit. Sea chest valves (valves in the lower levels that sit between the hull and the water), or the seals on the blanking flanges that would have been put in place once those valves were removed, would be more likely to fail than the hull rotting through.

Eh, I'm sure they will. I would think that they should get divers to go and put a cofferdam in place so they can pump the water out and see what went wrong. The only problem would be if there was enough silt built up around the hull where it could not be done safely. Just pumping out the water is a bit of a futile effort unless they can manage to pump way more than is coming in. Considering how much pressure there is at those hull penetrations, they could be just peeing in the wind.